Escaping reality through postage stamps

Mar 20, 2020, 11 AM

Painting of a man looking at a stamp catalog or magazine. The source of this painting and four others noted in the column is unknown.

Philatelic Foreword by Jay Bigalke

Escaping from reality is something I think a lot of us around the world would like to do at the moment because of the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak. As social events related to the stamp hobby are being canceled or rescheduled, collectors might have more time to look more closely at their collections.

If you have the extra time, now might be the perfect opportunity to work on that stamp exhibit you might have been putting off, mount stamps in albums, organize your collection, shop online or by mail for stamps, bid in auctions, and much more.

At the Linn’s and Scott offices in Sidney, Ohio, we have been doing some spring cleaning, and I stumbled across five paintings on board in our art files. One of them caught my attention because it shows a stamp collector relaxing with a stamp magazine or catalog.

I checked with several people, including those here in the office, but I cannot figure out where this painting was used. It is possible that it appeared in a Scott publication or advertisement sometime in the 1970s or 1980s.

Three of the other four paintings show people at a desk: a young man with a catalog and a stamp album, a child with a stamp album and stamps, and a father flipping through his stamp album while his wife and two children look on. In the remaining painting, two girls are looking at a magazine advertising stamp collecting kits.

If you have information on these paintings, I would like to hear from you. Just send an email to jbigalke@amosmedia.com or write to my attention, Linn’s Stamp News, Box 4129, Sidney, OH 45365.